Jails Should Stay Close to Courts

Many thanks for keeping the people of Orange County well informed on the El Toro Marine base reuse and the James A. Musick Branch Jail expansion plans.

From the in-depth stories and editorials, to the public opinion survey down to publishing numerous letters to the editor, the coverage by the L.A. Times on those important issues has been truly exceptional.

MARCEL J. FERNANDEZ

Chairman

Jail Alternatives to Musick

Lake Forest

* The Board of Supervisors that brought us our county bankruptcy has done it again. By approving the ill-conceived jail expansion in Irvine, they prove yet again that logic and common sense escape them--of course, political special interests never escape them.

Jails belong in close proximity to courthouses. (It used to be that jails were in courthouses because it was the logical place for them.) Today, more than ever, jails should be near courts for security reasons, economic reasons, environmental reasons and traffic impact.

The logic of spending millions of dollars on large, smog-belching lumbering jail buses clogging our freeways and staffed with expensive sheriff’s deputies to transport prisoners back and forth from far-flung jails to court is the same kind of political logic that gave us our wonderful bankruptcy.

Santa Ana derives all the benefits of being our county seat yet doesn’t want to bear any of the negative consequences. Look around our state or our country--county jails typically are (and should be) located in the county seat.

Clearly we need more jail space, but this space should be built near criminal courts buildings, not in outlying residential areas.

ROGER GREGSTON

Lake Forest